Category Archives: #Cotton Chronicles

Cotton Chronicles, Kissing Shuttles

Shuttles are elegantly formed wooden tools used for weaving textiles, like cotton, on looms, they are usually manufactured from Dogwood, Cornel or Persimmon, all hardwoods which rarely splinter. Within a shuttle is a hollow which contains a hinged ‘shuttle peg’, upon this is mounted a ‘pirn’, basically a long thin reel or bobbin, around whichContinue reading “Cotton Chronicles, Kissing Shuttles”

Cotton Chronicles; Pentridge Mill

By the mid-19th century, the Lancashire town of Burnley had developed into a thriving centre of industry, dominated by the booming cotton trade, its skyline pierced by the chimneys of mills that churned out cloth for the world. Around 1854, Pentridge Mill rose on land bordered by Todmorden Road, Holmes Street, and Oxford Road, builtContinue reading “Cotton Chronicles; Pentridge Mill”

May, a Lancashire Dialect poem by John Rawcliffe

May Though every month for me’s a cherm,Aw’m fain as Winter’s hed his term;For thy breath’s gradely sweet an’ werm,        Aw like thee, May!Tha looks best deawn bi th’ owd Stydd ferm        At break o’ day. Wheer th’ banks o’ Ribble’s weshed wi’ t’ flood,Aw tramped through mony a field an’ wood;Aw see tha’s paintedContinue reading “May, a Lancashire Dialect poem by John Rawcliffe”

Cotton Chronicles; Lancashire Looms

Lancashire Looms The Lancashire loom is a semi-automatic power loom that works by propelling devices called ‘shuttles’ to-and-fro to weave together warp (longitudinal) and weft (lateral) threads. It was invented by James Bullough and William Kenworthy in 1842 as an improvement on the original power loom first patented by Edmund Cartwright in 1784. If thatContinue reading “Cotton Chronicles; Lancashire Looms”

Cotton Chronicles, Queen Street Mill, Part One; Raising Steam

Queen Street Mill can be found down the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the Lancashire village of Harle Syke on the outskirts of Burnley and is the world’s last surviving operational 19th century steam-powered weaving mill. Set up as a worker’s cooperative in 1894 the mill operated for decades after its contemporaries had ceasedContinue reading “Cotton Chronicles, Queen Street Mill, Part One; Raising Steam”

Cotton Chronicles, Kirk Mill, Chipping

Kirk Mill At the height of the Industrial Revolution the village of Chipping, originally an agricultural village, quickly became a thriving centre of the cotton industry, in 1831 a population census counted 1334 inhabitants, whereas only a few years earlier this number had hardly reached 3 figures! Seven spinning mills provided the employment for thisContinue reading “Cotton Chronicles, Kirk Mill, Chipping”